GOOD Statement by Suzette Little,
GOOD Deputy Secretary-General & City of Cape Town Councillor
25 April 2025
The Township Development Charges Fund was pitched as a bold step toward supporting micro-developers and stimulating affordable housing in Cape Town’s lower-income communities. When Council adopted the fund last year, it earmarked R20 million to subsidise development charges for small-scale rental units, aiming to unlock investment and improve housing access in targeted areas.
Yet, nearly a year later, this initiative has proven to be, yet another grand plan marred by gross underperformance. As of the current financial year, only R1,653,992.50, or just 8.27%, of the fund has been spent. A staggering R18,346,007.50 remains untouched, with only two months left in the financial year. This level of underspending points to more than just red tape. It exposes serious administrative and procedural failings: poor project planning, ineffective implementation systems, and a troubling lack of political will.
The report tabled in Council confirms that only eight applications have been approved this year, while the rest remain stuck in internal processes plagued by delays in valuations, convoluted grant agreements, and issues with appointing conveyancers.
Rather than urgently fixing these failures, the City is doubling down. It now proposes expanding the fund to include state employees, an ill-conceived move that would increase the number of applicants and the administrative burden, without addressing the very bottlenecks that have crippled the programme’s performance. This expansion only deepens the risk to public funds and adds pressure to an already faltering system.
GOOD has consistently raised concerns about this project, not only because of its inefficiency, but because of its flawed approach to spatial planning. The fund encourages further densification in already overburdened communities, exacerbating overcrowding, stretching basic infrastructure, and degrading the quality of life for residents. It entrenches inequality instead of disrupting it, locking low-income development into areas long neglected by inclusive planning.
This is not what transformative governance looks like.
GOOD cannot support the expansion of a programme that has failed to meet its own targets, squandered public potential, and perpetuated spatial injustice. The Township Development Charges Fund must undergo urgent redirection and restructuring before any additional public funds are committed. Anything less would be fiscally irresponsible and morally indefensible.
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